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The battle for the Golden Boot trophy is reaching a fever pitch as the 2025-26 season nears its mid-season juncture.

With a different winner in each of the last three campaigns, the award remains highly contested. Manchester City star Erling Haaland was the most recent Premier League-based striker to win the trophy back in the 2022-23 season.

The prodigious Norwegian goal-scorer is back in the mix this campaign, but faces tough competition from Bayern Munich marksman Harry Kane and Spanish La Liga superstar Kylian Mbappe. With many fixtures remaining, other players still have time to enter the contest.

What is the European Golden Shoe Award?

The European Golden Shoe was inaugurated in the 1967-68 by the French newspaper L'Equipe to honor the top scorer in league matches from a European top-flight league.

Since the 1997-98, the award has been administered by European Sports Media, which introduced a weighted scoring system. Under this method, a player's tallies are multiplied by a specific coefficient based on the strength ranking of their domestic competition.

Goals scored in the continent's five major leagues—the Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Serie A, and French Ligue 1—are worth two points apiece.

For leagues ranked from sixth to twenty-second in UEFA's list, such as the Portuguese league, goals are worth one and a half points. Goals in all other European leagues carry one point.

While the award has been jointly won on multiple occasions in the past, a rule change from the 2019-20 season states that in the event of a points tie, the award goes to the player with the least minutes played.

If the tie remains, the next deciding factor is the total of league assists, followed by the least penalties scored. Only if these tiebreakers are used would the prize be shared.

Who are the Leading Challengers?

Currently, a three-horse tussle exists for the current season's Golden Shoe, with the three most recent winners split by just a solitary goal.

• Harry Kane (England captain) leads with 19 goals (38 points) from 15 Bundesliga fixtures.
• Erling Haaland also has 19 goals (38 points) from 17 Premier League appearances.
• Kylian Mbappe sits just behind on 18 goals (36 points) in 18 La Liga matches.

In fourth is Darko Lemajic of Latvia's club RFS, who has scored 28 goals (28 points) across their 36 league games in 2025.

Feyenoord striker Ayase Ueda is joint-fifth with 18 goals (27 points) from 17 Eredivisie matches this term.

The rest of the top 10 is made up of players from leagues that operate on a January-to-December schedule.

A Look at Previous Recipients

Throughout its nearly six-decade history, the Golden Shoe has been won by some of football's most iconic names.

Portuguese legend Eusebio won the inaugural trophy in 1968, scoring 42 goals for Benfica. He later won the award for a second time in the 1972-73.

Argentine legend Lionel Messi has won the record number of Golden Shoes, collecting the honor on six separate occasions during his long tenure at Barcelona.

Messi established the benchmark for highest tally in a single season with fifty in 2011-12 (100 points). He also became the only player to date to win it in three straight seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo claimed his first award in the 2007-08 season with Manchester United before going on to win it on three further occasions with Real Madrid.

The first player to win the award while at an English club was Ian Rush in 1983-84, when he scored thirty-two goals for Liverpool FC.

The award has seen a different winner in every one of the past three seasons.

Erling Haaland won the prize for the first time in 2022-23, scoring a Premier League record 36 goals (72 points). Harry Kane secured his first Golden Shoe with the same goal tally for Bayern Munich the following year.

Kylian Mbappe is the current holder of the award after scoring thirty-one goals (62 points) for Real Madrid in 2024-25.

Now, the same trio are competing at the summit of the leaderboard again this season, with Kane presently leading the pack.